


Five Things Valery Realised About The Hug

by TheGreenMeridian



Category: Chernobyl (TV 2019)
Genre: Don’t copy to another site, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 22:48:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20299198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGreenMeridian/pseuds/TheGreenMeridian
Summary: When Boris hugs Valery, he comes to some realisations. Some easier to handle than others.





	Five Things Valery Realised About The Hug

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted as a comment on a tumblr post, reworked and expanded on slightly for here.

The first thing he realised was how big Boris’ hands were against his cheeks. Boris’ hands had been a source of endless fascination for him, they exuded a kind of solid masculinity that Valery had always envied in other men. For the brief moment Boris was holding his face, he felt enveloped by them, hidden from the rest of the room for only Boris could see, and he could see only Boris.

The second thing was how wonderfully warm Boris’ body was. It was only natural to turn his head so he could rest his face on Boris’ shoulder, to take as much of the contact as he could get. His arms rose slowly, ready to wrap around Boris’ body and return the embrace, to pull Boris flush against him and bury into the safety of his chest. But then Boris stepped back, and it was over, and Valery had lost his chance.

The third he realised later that evening, when he was tossing and turning in bed, is that his reaction to Boris’ teasing had been not unlike his reaction to a girl at school giving offering to share her sweets with him when he was 12. She was a pretty thing and he’d found himself wanting to look at her during class, though he couldn’t work out why. And then she’d come up to him with a small bag of halva and offered him half, and he had been hit with exactly why he liked looking at her so much. He’d laughed shyly and been unable to look at her properly, struck with fear and awkwardness and the general difficulty of being a 12 year old boy with thick glasses and few friends, and she’d laughed too and let him eat the halva anyway.

The fourth was that it had been years since he had experienced anything even approaching that level of physical contact with another person. Handshakes at work, the occasional slap on the back from a colleague, and medical from his doctor were all he’d had in far longer than he’d previously realised. He knew he hadn’t had sex in such a long time, of course he did, but he hadn’t realised just how long he had gone without any form of physical affection until a tension and loneliness he hadn’t known he was carrying melted away at the first touch of Boris’ warm skin against his own. 

And the fifth thing, the most difficult realisation of all, was that he might actually be in love with Boris. What a mess. He had no business finding the man attractive, no business pining for someone like this after so long perfectly happy with his own company. Well,not happy as such, but not terribly unhappy either. He should forget he’d ever thought about Boris as anything other than a friend. He wouldn’t try to initiate another hug, as much as he now physically ached for one, he wouldn’t stare at him, and he certainly wouldn’t think about how he’d been happier being held by Boris than he ever was about the moon rover.

No, it was best that he just forgot about this. Tomorrow, anyway. Tonight, he reasoned, it wouldn’t be so bad if he let himself dream a little longer about Boris embracing him again.

**Author's Note:**

> thegreenmeridian.tumblr.com


End file.
